Last night was a long run from Oakland at the afternoon rush hour. I came through Marsh Creek Canyon down to the levee road into Stockton. If I am in for a three hour drive, I can at least have some beautiful hill country. The land in the canyon is still green; I saw one tree in bloom as the darkness came early to the canyon. Warm temperatures all week may have given it a false sense of hope.
The house in Oakland is being painted, creating total chaos. The job will be longer and more thorough than expected, probably three weeks.
The sun and I are rising earlier these days. Daylight comes about a quarter to seven. i love my morning hours even when the temperatures are still cool.
I watered all the front plants by hand with special attention to the new plantings: ceanothus and lantana on the front slope, and the two potato bushes in triangle garden and front bed. I need to watch the back half of the sweet pea that has no fresh green growth.
I found a box of camellia food, cleared and aerated the soil around the two camellias, applied and watered in the nutrients that included mostly nitrogen. The food is only applied during the growing season; I discontinue it in the all before its blooming season. The camellia to the left of the front porch had two exquisite pink blooms that I brought in to cheer MJ through her cold last weekend.
The roses showed the first new growth of the season, which may be a false hope. Nevertheless, I buried and watered in the Jobe’s nutrient spikes for roses. Judy asked whether there might be room for another rose bush.
The border garden off the back porch has three African daisies that have not thrived. I pruned the dead wood off each of them to encourage new growth and will see how they react. The lavender appears to be taking hold, and I pruned it to avoid sprawl. The correopsis that I planted in the fall is still hanging on. The border garden would benefit from a load of topsoil.
Just the morning chores and then off to Rancho Cordova for MJ’s cataract surgery.
A Year at the Snake 